Plastics Recycling

Eclipse Product Installed: Double Row Housed Easy Clean Grid

Industry: Plastics recycling

Finished Product: PVC sheeting

Application Background

The manufacturing process involves feeding a mix of flaked or powdered virgin and reground polymer from a hopper via a gravity chute into the sheet extruder. The material is then heated, extruded and rolled into sheet form, which can be anything up to 6mm thick.

Problem

The incoming raw material is prone to ferrous contamination from ferrous fragments from broken granulator blades, machine wear or often the original recycled items containing ferrous particles. If ferrous contamination enters the extruder it can damage the roller. The roller has a special polished surface to ensure consistent quality surface on the PVC sheet. The main problems are subsequent damage to the roller which causes product rejects, machine downtime and a £ 3,000 fee to refurbish the roller.

Solution

An 11,000 Gauss Double Row Housed Grid Magnet was fitted on the gravity chute prior to the entry to the extruder. This removed incoming ferrous contamination and prevented any roller damage. The easy clean design ensured it could be cleaned within production cycles thus minimising downtime. Maximum throughput was close to 15m3/hour with a 150mm inlet/outlet.

Find out more about Separation & Detection   or contact us for more information